When I was at the UGA College of Agriculture, I made all “C’s”.

We industrialized, centralized, and commoditized agriculture [food production].

I was raised in the heart of the Bible belt, but I was not raised in the Church. On Sundays, we tended to cattle, just like we did the other six days.

I don't ever remember my father attending a Church service. My attendance was limited to the occasional Sunday mornings, when I happened to have...

In the 75 years after the end of World War II, we have lived under the assumption that whatever was good for us would be good for our planet. The unintended, unnoticed, and unpleasant consequences of that idea have now become clear and costly. This idea has proved to be a dismal failure. 

I was an industrial cattle rancher for 20 years. My upbringing prepared me to operate my farm in an industrialized, commoditized way. My education taught me a reductive, linear farming method.

We recently had a young person visit us on the farm who was eager to learn about what we do. She admitted up front that she had never spent any time on a farm.

I just looked up today's price for gold. It was $2,035 per ounce. An acre of non-irrigated farmland in Bluffton, Georgia sells for about $2,000 per acre.

So, today, you can buy an acre of farmland for less money than you can buy an ounce of gold.

Other than open pit mineral mining operations, there are few commercial endeavors that degrade land as much as industrial monocrop agriculture. Industrial monocrop agriculture utilizes tillage, and chemical fertilizers, and pesticides, which harm our environment in many ways:

All of my life I have heard, and used, the expression “Living off of the Fat of the Land”.

To me, that expression means doing well from the excesses that come from what you have. It is kind of like living on the interest that is paid on your savings account.

For the last 25 years, some of us have recognized there is no resilience in the American food production system. Today, it is painfully evident to anyone who takes a look at it. 

Fact: American grassfed beef ranches have lost most of their profitability in the last few years.

I have found it necessary to rethink encouraging new producers to embrace our regenerative cattle production model. I now feel compelled to warn them to be very careful.  This is because we veteran...